Customer Reviews

Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ4K 8.1MP Digital Camera with 10x Wide Angle MEGA Optical Image Stabilized Zoom (Black)

5 star:		(100)
4 star:		(30)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

This is a great little camera for both an advanced amateur (like me) looking for a second camera to carry everywhere you can't take your DSLR or for a complete novice (like my wife) who is looking for a camera that is really easy to use yet takes good pictures.

IN SUMMARY
What makes this camera special is that you have a full 10X zoom in a very compact form factor with a real wide-angle lens at 28mm. Most other cameras offer a smaller zoom range (around 4x), provide a semi-wide-angle at about 35mm, or are much bulkier.

PICTURE QUALITY
In reality, most cameras today take pretty decent pictures. Most people really don't need more than 2 megapixels, unless you are planning to either crop your photos or make very large prints. Therefore 8.1 megapixels are more than enough. My DSLR has 5 megapixels and I have never needed more.

The Leica lens is very high quality. The multiple built-in scene modes will make it easier to capture that sunset or use custom settings for that special picture. As with most cameras, it is always to have a photo editing program to adjust contrast (or levels if you are a bit more advanced), do some cropping and adjust sharpening.

As an advanced amateur (take a look at my Nikon DSL photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/gdada ) I found the quality of the pictures from the Lumix TZ4 to be excellent. AT the same time, my wife was able to use the Intelligent Auto mode to snap some pretty decent pictures. The flash does an especially good job - indoor people pictures had very nice tones and not blown out or underexposed like some other cameras.

VIDEO
With a 1Gb SD card I was able to capture a couple videos of my daughters dancing (to Hannah Montana, of course). The quality and resolution of the video is pretty amazing for a camera in this price range. You may want to use Windows Movie Maker (included with XP and Vista) to do some edits and make the video a smaller size suitable for emailing.

OTHER FEATURES
The camera feels very well built and solid. Face detection technology works incredibly well, ensuring your subjects are always in focus (as opposed to focusing to whatever is at the center of the picture). Image stabilization works . The LCD screen is very large and bright. Controls are easy to understand.

SUMMARY
I spent a long time looking at many cameras and playing with them. If you are an advanced photographer, this is not a camera to replace a DSLR, but a perfect companion to take to those places where you don't want (or can't) bring your big expensive camera. The TZ45 does not provide all the manual controls of other cameras, yet it allows enough settings for me (i.e. exposure compensation, ISO settings, etc.) .

For the average user, you can find a cheaper and a smaller camera for sure. But I doubt you will find a solid, pocket camera with a 10x zoom and a 28mm quality lens that produces such great photos with little effort. Definitely, the TZ4 is highly recommended.

UPDATE ---
I uploaded a few photos fromt he Lumix to this Flickr page http://www.flickr.com/photos/LumixTZ4/ My other Flickr page has mostly photos taken with my Nikon D50.

Most photos I uploaded are straight from the camera. I found a simple sharpen command from any photo editing software will increase the quality of the pictures.

I have enjoyed the camera and am suprised for its great flash performance. It does an incredible job at balancing the background with a just-right flash.

Battery charge lasted for a couple hundred photos. Highly recommended.

I decided to do a little test comparing the SD 800 IS (28mm to 105 mm), SD 850 IS (35mm to 140 mm) and the Panasonic Lumix TZ4 (28mm to 280 mm). I just wanted to make sure that I got the camera that was right for me.

As part of the test, I took about 70 photos with each camera in various lighting conditions, indoor lighting behind, indoor lighting in front, outdoor, zoom, wide angle, etc. Because I usually use only 4x6 prints, I printed all the photos in 4x6 prints at a local photo lab. There was no post photo processing on any of the photos. I just wanted to see the results right out of the camera so to speak.

Thus, to me, the test was as real world as possible because that is how people use the camera, you don't shoot screens of color swatches, you shoot people, things, landscapes, grass, etc. Printing it out at a photo lab let me see the pictures as best as they could be. All cameras were set on full auto and no special modes were used for any of the shots.

The results were very intersting but hardly surprising. With the exception of a somewhat noticeable difference in the telephoto and zoom ranges, at a 4x6 size, there is essentially no discernable difference in the pictures generated by the Canon SD 850IS and the Canon SD 800IS. There was no difference indoors, outdoors, or anywhere else. This is not surprising, because the cameras are very very similar, use the same processor, and only differ in the lenses.

The Panasonic was another story. It exhibited performance issues, had zoom hunting, poor focus, fringing, etc. on the indoor shots. Outside, with plenty of light, it performed very well and produced excellent photos, but because I don't shoot exclusively outside, that was a deal killer for me. You basically cannot shoot anything moving indoors with this camera. Based on the reviews, I understood that this camera had limitations, but did not realize how much the processor hobbled this camera's indoor performance.

Here's the Review for the Panasonic Lumix TZ4:

PROS:

LENS: The quality and range of this lens are ideal. That is the absolute best part of this camera. Wide angle lens is a real treat in a point and shoot sized camera. I shot many group shots with this camera and everyone of them fit in the picture, and I did not have to walk back any steps (or wedge myself into a corner, etc. to do it). Also, outside, and especially outside, it is amazing what you will fit into a picture. There is absolutely no distortion with this lens. The outside pictures are superb.

ZOOM RANGE: You will not find better.

FEEL: The feel of this camera is of a well built quality piece. The grip is excellent and it feels good in the hand.

FAST: Pretty fast for a point and shoot. Not as fast as the Canons.

SIZE: The smallest superzoom anywhere. Smaller than Canon's superzoom the SX-1000. Looks better too.

LOOKS AND FEEL: I absolutely loved the looks and feel of this camera. It reminded me of my old SLR. It had a nice heft to it, and the controls were laid out nicely. Also love the fact that it was black and made of good quality materials.

BATTERY: Battery life is very good. Took almost 200 shots and did not even come close to using up the battery.

FLASH: Flash is very strong for a camera this size. Reaches rather far, but will not illuminate an object at the end of the 10X zoom.

CONS:

PROCESSOR: This camera is a grand slam waiting to happen if they can just put in a better processor. On indoor pictures, there is no ability to take a good candid with the camera because it hunts for focus and zoom for too long. Many of the pictures that were taken exhibited astounding amounts of fringing, or were out of focus. Because I was looking for a camera that I needed to take many indoor candid shots (where people are moving around and not posing), this was a deal breaker for me.

On outside shots, where you have plenty of light and if people don't move around too much, the camera takes excellent pictures. Many of the professional reviewers lament Panasonic's heavy handed noise reduction, but you don't see anything on the outside shots. This zoom range is an unbelievable asset to have outdoors.

Overall, many reviewers labelled this a "travel camera" and it is easy to see why. It is durable, has a great lens, and will take excellent sightseeing photos. For that purpose, it is highly recommended. I knocked it down to three stars because I need a camera that does it all very well, and the indoor performance of this camera was disappointing in view of how much I really wanted to like and keep this camera.

Hope this helps and best of luck in your shopping!

I have a DSLR that I really, really like, but there are times when I want to travel with a minimum of gear. And then, of course, it's absolutely true that the best camera is the one you actually have with you when you see that once-in-a-lifetime shot.

I've not been a Panasonic user before this and was actually quite leery of the brand based on professional reviews that complained about other Panasonic models suffering from a watercolor effect and heavy handed noise reduction artifacts. So I went with Fuji first and then Canon, but couldn't "get happy" with any of their offerings.

So far, neither noise reduction artifacting nor watercolor effects are apparent in this iteration, the TZ-4. It is a gorgeous metal camera that is easy to hold by a guy with even fairly large hands, despite the fact that it's very compact. The menu system is quite straightforward and there are plenty of scene modes that at least approximate what a manual control camera might offer you. ISO, AF area, metering area, exposure compensation and bracketing, and white balance can all be manually set. There is no shutter or aperture priority, although you can specify the absolute minimum shutter speed the camera will choose, down to a full second.

The custom white balance set feature is very well implemented, and I had no problem getting beautifully lit, correctly exposed existing light shots indoors using the image stabilization feature and low ISO.

The LCD monitor is not as sharp as the TZ5's but plenty good for checking pictures, and the battery lasts longer in this camera than the TZ5 if that matters to you.

The AF assist light is very, very helpful and focus lock is almost always very quick and on the money. The macro feature is astounding. The controls are well placed and give good feedback.

I have three gripes: the power switch and the scene wheel can both be inadvertently activated; there need to be way firmer detents or they both have to be recesed. AF seems to struggle a bit with the movie mode, but being able to zoom during the actual video shooting is a godsend. And finally, the USB out port is irritating. It pops open very easily. I may use a piece of black electrical tape to cover it.

All in all a superb little performer for what you get for your money; chock full of features and of course the lovely 28 - 280 zoom. WOW. I highly recommend this camera as an ideal all around travel camera you might actually take with you !!

Excellent camera! Easy to use. Takes good photos and videos. I bought this camera to take pictures of my kids playing sports. The camera took excellent shots of the kids playing soccer and running track. You can use the zoom manually or the automatic feature. Video playback was clear. You have playback options by calendar or with added music built into the memory. It also uses the new high performance SD cards which allows you to purchase either a 8gb or 16gb card allowing you to record one hour video. Amazon sales an 8gb for around $30. Don't forget to by a reader for the high performance card which I also purchased through amazon for $8.

This being a new product i was little apprehensive about buying it. But after getting this i just found that its too good. All round winner and would be a very good competitior for Canon SX-100 with 10X optical zoom. Its predecessor didn't have the zoom active while taking videos, but with this new model its taken care of that. More or less the remaining review will be same its predecessor except for some improvements. Looks are good and also small and will easily fit in a loose jeans pocket as well.
Absolutely worth the money and a complete all-round camera.

I bought this camera, after quite a bit of research, to replace my Canon SD400 that was going on three years of use (and I always have a camera on me, so that's a lot of use). I wanted something relatively small but more capable than my Canon, which took great pictures of still objects in great lighting and decent video, but was slow and limited by its 3X zoom and insensitive flash.

Out of the box, the TZ4K looks nice, albeit a little clunky next to the sleek Elphs and other more compact cameras on the market. However, it powers up quickly and adapts readily to just about anything I've tested so far (the first week I had it consisted of nothing but rain, so for a while I was just doing poorly-lit indoor shots of my cats and random furniture. That said, that my cats actually looked like cats and not blurry blobs or white glowing things is a major improvement over my old camera).

I took it to the zoo, where it had a little trouble deciding what to focus on if using the long end of the zoom (especially if the subject was moving), but I suspect this could be helped by turning off the continuous auto-focus. I got a few interesting action shots of my three-year-old nephew running around. I took it to the bar with a few friends and had a shoot-off with a friend who owns a Nikon. Today I took it on a hike and tried out the scenery and macro modes, the latter of which can be a little tricky sometimes. It can't always decide whether it should be focusing on the background or the foreground, even when macro mode is selected (though it does tell you when you're too close for it to focus).

I did notice some of the focus changes during video mode that some people have complained about in reviews of this and the TZ3/TZ5, but to be honest it was minimal and can be avoided by turning off the AF. Sound quality is comparable to my Canon -- not the highest quality, but clear and audible.

Battery life is good and it has a battery meter on-screen, so you don't have to hunt through any menus to find out how long you've got.

I bought it bundled with the 4GB SDHC and reader and they arrived on the same day. Also got a Lowepro Rezo 30 case for it, which isn't too bulky but has a soft lining and lots of padding.

Overall, I really love this camera and would recommend it to anyone interested in purchasing it. Definitely worth it.

Edit: I've now had this camera for over a year and still thoroughly enjoy it. I've found that leaving it on the "natural" color setting leads to images that are little to on the "cool" side, but that's what "vivid" is for. One quirk I've noticed and do not like is if I'm switching back and forth between taking video and pictures, it will sometimes randomly save a picture in a reeeaaalllyyy low resolution. It's really obnoxious, because I've had a few otherwise good shots become worthless due to terrible image quality in a format too small to even make a passable 4x6 with. If anyone else has this issue and/or has a solution, I'd appreciate it. Most of the time it's not an issue, though.

I'm not a professional photographer, but would consider myself an advanced amateur. I jumped on the "digital" bandwagon in '98 and since then have owned 8 different cams. I currently do most of my shooting with a Canon SLR, but bought this Panasonic for my wife (she was carrying a small 5Mpix Canon in her purse for point-and-shoot type use). She wanted something that was small, light, but had WAY better ZOOM capability so she could do occasional BIRD shots. The Panasonic seemed to fit the bill. We've only had it for a few weeks, but here are our observations:

1. Very well built; quality feel
2. Smaller/lighter than I thought (given the awesome zoom lens)
3. Panasonic's choice to position the zoom to START at a wide angle (28MM equivalent) was right-on. We can take shots indoors (or do great landscape shots) then ZOOM in for more detail
4. The anti-shake is amazing. She's done some hand-held sunsets at full zoom and the results rival what I can do with my Canon SLR on a tripod!
5. Speaking of sunsets, she uses the full-auto mode and the exposures are PERFECT!
6. We've only taken one video and the results are GREAT. For MOST video uses we won't be carrying our camcorder any longer.
7. For all manner of shots (indoors with flash; outdoors in the evening with fill-flash; Full sun; Sun+Shade; Close-ups etc etc) the exposures and color saturation are spot on.
8. VERY impressive face-recognition capability! Spooky to watch it track the subject as they move around in the frame and keep focus on them!
9. Great Battery life (we've taken maybe 50-60 photos + the video and the battery "gas guage" still shows 3/4 capacity left.)

Negatives?....so far we've not found any.

Basically this is the MOST impressive Digital Camera we've ever owned and for a shade over $200 it's a terrific bargain as well!

I picked this camera up for our major family vacation to Greece this year, as I wanted a new camera with a nice zoom and better resolution. I spent about 3 weeks investigating which camera to pick up, looking at a number of different web sites and their reviews (Amazon and c-net were great places for info).

The camera was great out of the box, easy to understand and program as it has a few nice trip programs to assist with filing pictures.

The zoom is great as I was able to get up close to a number of ruins with the lens. During the trip I noticed a majority of the travelers had the same or a different version of this Panasonic camera.

It has a fast opening speed, which is nice when you need to pull out the camera and get it open for that unexpected shot, as well a rather fast picture to picture speed if you want to capture a number of shots quickly. Also, there is no delay from pushing the button to the camera taking the picture, which was nice (my old camera had a delay which made timing a little difficult).

All in all, wonderful camera, we just returned and the pictures are great quality.

One negative point - make sure that you pick up an extra memory card - as the camera does not come with one, so you can only take a few pictures. I picked up a 4 Gig card, which as the vibrant picture setting is good for about 1,000 pictures.

Well, this might be a little different approach to the typical review, but I thought it was only fair since I spend so much doe at this website! Firstly, the credentials of this camera are above reproach. The finest German Lens on the market. The most powerful zoom on a compact point and shoot. I could go on, but hey, this is a great camera. Only one thing I could add. You might find this a dirty trick, but, tough luck. I went to Costco and got it with a coupon and it came with a case, a 1 gig card, and it was $[...]. So don't be mad anyone, I spend plenty here, I just thought it fair to pass along the advice. Gooday, from a faithful Amazon buyer. J

This is my first point and shoot camera and I gotta say that im very satisfied with this product. The quality of the pics are great and the 10x zoom is amazing. The menu is easy to use and so far it has worked nicely in very dark enviroments. I highly recommend it.